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this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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Look, look! Spain having alfil meaning elephant and Italy having alfiere meaning standart-bearer (is that a common English word?) great! Which one came for the other? Or are they oddly unrelated?
The Spanish word is borrowed from Arabic fil (sounds sort of like "feel") = elephant (al fil = the elephant). Hebrew cognate is pil, sounds sort of like the English word "peel". Italian is unrelated, I think.
~~Kowalski~~ Wazowski, analysis!
I think it's supposed to be "standard-bearer", which (at least in my part of the world) would more likely be called a "flag bearer" since more people are familiar with the word "flag" over "standard" when used in that sense of the word.
Also, it looks like it was originally called alfil (according to this Wikipedia article? Whereas the Italian "alfiere" came from a different Spanish word meaning "second lieutenant"?